The main thing to keep in mind when working with internal company communications is integrity. When planning your strategy, don't forget any of these things:
Company values If your company doesn't have a well-defined list of values that employees should live by, then 2022 is a great time to make one. Corporate values are a set of rules and principles that must be followed. Values form relationships both within the company and with customers and partners. They are necessary to create a comfortable and predictable working environment between employees, as well as to design the external image of the company.
Inclusiveness and versatility For an internal communications strategy to be truly effective, it must be kept in mind when planning that all employees are in different circumstances and have different preferences. Someone actively uses mail at work and it is convenient for them to read news in mailing lists, while someone does not log into the mail client often, but constantly uses the corporate messenger. It is important to first conduct research and find out the methods and formats of communication popular among employees to use only the necessary communication channels and not leave anyone in an information vacuum.
Communication format Of course, mail remains the most popular way to communicate with a wide range of employees, but the newsletter format itself is too outdated and now employees are not interested in reading large plains of text. We advise you to explore new formats that are better suited for universal consumption, which are convenient and easy to read and watch from any device: computer or smartphone, regardless of operating system and time of day. The more convenient it is for employees to read your messages, the greater the read rate, and hence the engagement.
Content plan Maintaining a content plan is a good rule that all communications professionals should practice. If you send messages at different times and at different intervals, it will be difficult for employees to get used to them. We recommend that you regularly create and update a content plan for a month, and preferably a quarter. It is not necessary to plan the exact topics and content, but it is essential to always know the exact date and time of the next news release.
Goals You need to initially understand what goals you want to achieve through internal communications. This will allow you to understand what metrics you need to track and how to measure the effectiveness of the work being done. How to choose goals for an internal communication strategy? Examples of well-chosen goals are increasing employee engagement, increasing corporate content reach, reducing staff turnover, and the completion rate of employee surveys.
Efficiency analysis If you have done a lot of work planning communications for the year, you should take care to evaluate its results. Conducting surveys and internal research should become a regular activity in your company. It helps not only evaluate the success of the internal communications department but also monitor the mood and attitude of employees towards the work you have done. You can learn more about conducting surveys in
our article.
Even if you have a communications plan in place, it's worth aligning it with current industry practices to stay on trend and retain valuable employees who may be unhappy with outdated communication approaches in your company. Here are 6 trends that will help you with this.